The facility was established in 1958 when fifteen Indianapolis-area businessmen and racing professionals, including Tom Binford, Frank Dickie, Rodger Ward, and Howard Fieber, each invested $5,000 to develop a 267-acre farm tract into an auto racing complex. The original design called for a 2.500-mile, 15-turn road course, but the investment group incorporated a quarter-mile drag strip into the layout as an economic safeguard. Built with assistance from the National Hot Rod Association, the drag strip was completed first, hosting its inaugural event in the fall of 1960 under the name Indianapolis Raceway Park. The 0.686-mile oval was completed the following year, and the track received an overall renovation in 1988 to improve oval speeds.
The centerpiece of the facility is the 4,400-foot drag strip and its flagship event, the NHRA U.S. Nationals. Held annually over Labor Day weekend, the U.S. Nationals is the oldest and most prestigious race on the NHRA calendar. It is the only NHRA event with final eliminations scheduled on a Monday, and it carries the largest purse of any NHRA-sanctioned event, exceeding $250,000. The event moved to Indianapolis Raceway Park from Detroit in 1961 and has remained there continuously since. A special all-star race called the Traxxas Nitro Shootout runs alongside the main event for Top Fuel (Saturday) and Funny Car (Sunday) divisions, with each winner taking home $100,000.
The oval track hosts sprint car, midget car, and USAC Silver Crown events, traditionally staging races on Saturday nights during major events at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Memorial Day weekend program has long included the Carb Night Classic, a USAC Silver Crown, Sprint Car, and Midget Car event serving as an unofficial preliminary to the Indianapolis 500. NASCAR previously ran the Kroger 200 Nationwide Series race at the facility from 1982 to 2011, with a Truck Series event added in 1995. When Formula One raced at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, midget and sprint car events were held at the park as "Night Before F1" meets.
The road course hosted SCCA events beginning in 1961. Mario Andretti won his first Indy car race on the road course in 1965, a historically significant result as it was the first time in modern history that American Indy cars competed on a road circuit. The road course hosted the Hoosier Grand Prix as a round of the USAC National Championship for several seasons and also featured the USAC Stock Car Yankee 300. The last SCCA club road race was held in 2007, after which insurance constraints prevented further use of the pit lane configuration.
The facility has operated under several names during its history: Indianapolis Raceway Park, O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis, Lucas Oil Raceway, and since December 2021, Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. The O'Reilly Auto Parts naming rights tenure ran through the years surrounding the 2000s before being superseded by the Lucas Oil sponsorship. NASCAR returned to the oval in 2022 with the Craftsman Truck Series TSport 200, the first NASCAR visit in eleven years, marking the venue's continued relevance to national racing schedules.
The facility holds a unique position in American motorsport as a rare venue combining world-class drag racing, short-track oval racing, and a historic road course within a single complex near the hub of American open-wheel racing. Its unbroken hosting of the NHRA U.S. Nationals since 1961 makes it one of the longest continuously held premier motorsport events at a single venue in North America.